Card-game apparatus.



PATENTED SEPT. 25, 1906.

G. M. ATKINSON.

CARD GAME APPARATUS.

APPLIGATION FILED APR. 7, 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

WT/VESSES THE-NORM! PETERS LUTGKJHNGTZJAN 0 c No. 882,005. PATENTEDSEPT. 25, 1906. U. M. ATKINSON.

CARD GAME APPARATUS.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 7, 1904.

2 SHEETSSHBET 2.

WT/VfSi F UNITED STATES OARRO M. ATKINSON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

CARD-GAME APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 25, 1906.

Application filed pr 7,1904.- Serial No. 202,109.

To all whom it WMLZ/ concern;

Be it known that I, CARRo M. ATKINSON, of Boston, in the county ofSuffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Card-Game Apparatus, of which the following is aspecification.

The game apparatus which embodies this invention comprises a series ofportrait or performer cards for each prominent branch of the dramaticprofession, also a like series of theater and of audience cards andthree odd cards representing influences or luck, good and bad, all ashereinafter explained. There are sixty-six cards in the pack. Variousbranches of the stage art are represented, as follows: grand opera,tragedy, drama, comedy, comic opera, vaudeville, and farce, seven cardsfor each branch, each bearing a picture of some conspicuous player.There are also seven theater-cards, one for grand opera, one fortragedy, &c., each bearing an illustration or legend suggestive of thetheater. There are also seven audience-cards, appropriately illustrated.The pack is completed by one card called holiday, one card calledblizzard or hoodoo, and one card called deadhead, each card of thesethree preferably bearing a symbolic or conventional illustration inaddition to the name.

The game may be played by any number from three to seven. If more play,use two or more tables with separate packs of cards. If seven play, usethe entire pack. If six play, discard eight cards, seven labeled Farceand one audiencecard. If five play, omit cards labeled Farce andVaudeville and two audience-cards, and so on for fewer players-that is,discard nine cards (seven performer, one theater, and one audience) foreach player less than seven. If only three play, discard also thedeadhead-card.

T he game.-Cards are dealt one at a time until all except three cardshave been dealt. Each player should then have nine cards. The threecards remaining are placed face down on the table in front of the dealerin what is called the green room. The dealer must then say Doors open,the signal for all to pick up and sort their cards. When the dealer haswithin a reasonable time sorted his cards, he must say Curtains up. Thenplay begins.

The object of the game is to be the first player to fill some specialclass of theater with the artists that belong there and an audience thatis, to hold seven cards of the same description, (say comedy or tragedyor vaudeville,) the corresponding theater-card, and an audience-card.For example, if after the deal a player holds, say, the vaudevilletheater-card and four vaudeville performercards he needs but three morevaudevillecards and an audience-card to complete his hand. If hesucceeds in securing these cards and announcing the fact by the wordsHouse full before any other player similarly succeeds, he is the winner,and a new hand is dealt.

No hand is complete if it contains more than one audience-card norwithout one un less it contains the holiday-card, which Will serve inplace of any other except the theater-card. Thus if. a player holds thelyric theater (comic opera) card, seven comicopera cards, and also hasthe holiday-card his hand is complete.

When a hand is completed by the holidaycard, the value of that hand isincreased by ten points. I,

The blizzard-card is as detrimental to success' in the game of stage asthe bad weather which it represents is to the theatrical business. Ifyou receive this card, get rid of it. Its holder at the end of a hand isfined ten points. The deadhead-card is dangerous, too, although, likethe holiday-card, it can be reckoned as standing for any other cardexcept the theater-card and helps make a winning hand. When a winninghouse full contains the deadhead-card, five points are added to itsvalue; but if a player who does not have the winning hand at the closeof a round of play holds the deadhead-card he is fined five pointsunless he also holds two or more audience-cards as protection, in whichcase he loses nothing.

The game is one hundred points. A full house of grand-opera or tragedycards counts fifty. A full house of drama or comedy cards counts thirty.A full house of comicopera, vaudeville, or farce cards counts twenty.The holiday-card. adds ten points to the score of a player who has it atthe close of a hand. The deadhead-card in a winning hand adds fivepoints to its value; but its holder in any other hand is fined fivepoints unless he holds also two or more audience-cards, which protectit. The holder of the blizzard-card at the close of a hand is fined tenpoints. A player claiming house full who does not have it is fined tenpoints. If a player who has made no points is fined, it is set down tohis score with a minus sign, and he is said to be a deadhead.

The points of the winner of any hand are counted before those of anyother player. Thus if A had seventy points and B ninety and A secured afull house of drama-cards, counting thirty, he would win the game,although B held the holiday-card, counting ten.

The game will be played in accordance with printed rules not necessaryto be herein stated at length.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the series of cards above referredto.

Figure 1 represents one of the portrait or performer cards for thecomedy branch of the profession. Fig. 2 showing a theater or playhousecard; Fig. 3, an audience-card;

and Fig. 4, one of the influence-cards, the

illustration showing the one known as bliz- Zard. Figs. 5 and 6 show,respectively, the holiday and deadhead cards.

I claim as my invention 1. In a card-game apparatus, a series ofperformer-cards bearing representations of members of each prominentbranch of the dramatic profession, two like series of cards indicativeof the playhouse and of the audience, and a plurality of odd cardsrepresenting good and bad luck or influences bearing on the stage,substantially as set forth.

2. In a card-game apparatus, a series of portrait performer-cardsbearing representations of members of each prominent branch of thedramatic profession, the cards of each series being'severally identifiedwith players conspicuous in that branch, two other series of cardsrespectively conventional or symbolic of playhouse and audience, and atrio of odd cards severally representing favorable or adverse influencesand of positive and negative assumed value distinct from the othercards, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have afliXed my signature in presence of twowitnesses.

CARRO M. ATKINSON.

Witnesses:

A. H. SPENCER, FLORENCE E. RYDER.

